A truly renewable energy source - biomass
May 23, 2011Bioenergy from renewable raw materials can provide heat, electricity and fuel. It reduces dependency on oil and coal and enables a decentralized energy supply. It is also a valuable resource in the fight against climate change: biomass throughout its growing cycle consumes carbon dioxide – and when incinerated, releases the very same carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Biomass therefore has a neutral impact on the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
But the downside is that growing energy crops uses up land that could otherwise be used for food crops, while valuable habitats are lost when rainforests and marshes are destroyed to make way for monocultures of palm oil, soya and sugarcane. One key factor is whether or not the farming is sustainable and can be reconciled with environmental protection and food security.
The feature ‘GLOBAL IDEAS – Biomass' profiles pioneering projects.
Biodiesel for the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador)
A collaborative project between the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and partners in Ecuador retrofitting diesel generators so that they can run on vegetable oil. Small farmers in the coastal province of Manabí, meanwhile, are focusing on the pine nut tree, which is endemic to the region. With one cooperative turning its seeds into biofuel, the farmers now have a valuable extra source of income. GLOBAL IDEAS was there when the new generators arrived in the Galápagos Islands. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ecuador has set itself an ambitious target: it plans to rely solely on renewables for its energy needs in future.
Vegetable oil and biogas in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra (India)
Since time immemorial, the indigenous Adivasi minority of India have traditionally used oil plants such as kusum, mahua and sal for various purposes. Now that these plants are in demand as biofuel, a locally-administrated infrastructure of oil presses, irrigation systems, machinery and electricity generators is helping improve the income of many Adivasis. 24 villages, home to a population of roughly 9,000, are taking part in a project called RESRA (Renewable Energy Supply for Rural Areas) in the state of Chhattisgarh. The biodiesel stations operated by AERF (Applied Environment Research Foundation) in the state of Maharashtra are also proving so successful that they are likely to be copied in other parts of the country.
Willie Smits' Indonesian Sugar Palm Plan
Willie Smits was born in the Netherlands and now lives on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi where he works as a forester, a microbiologist, conservationist, animal rights activist and social entrepreneur. A visionary, he is convinced that the answer to the world's energy problem is bioethanol made from sugar palm. He promotes the use of sugar palm on Borneo and Sulawesi and has started a project aiming to extract bio-energy from sustainable, mixed sugar palm forests spread all over the country and managed by local communities. In Northern Sulawesi, Smits has started the world's first sugar palm factory that now produces sugar and bioethanol and is set to produce palm juice too. It could be a game-changing scheme.
A film by Jörg Seibold (jp)
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar